Wednesday, December 30, 2009

These are my top 10 favorite goals of the past decade. Anybody who has come up with a list like this knows that it's difficult to stop at ten, there are so many deserving goals from the past ten years. These goals are not necessarily the 'Best' goals of the decade, but are my most memorable/favorites. Enjoy!

Dwayne DeRosario, not all that impressive until the view at the 56 second mark

Gianfranco Zola, a goal Claudio Ranieri described as "fantasy, magic"

Andres Vasques, ridiculous goal from Swedish Allsvenskan

Robin van Persie, I'm not a fan of the 'big four', but this goal is great

Lucas Matías Licht, a long range bomb in Argentina

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, dribbling through the entire defense

Ronaldinho, Amazing control and overhead kick

Landon Donovan, Charlie Davies and Mandon combine in the Confed Cup Final

CAUTION: LOUD VOLUMEZinedine Zidane, Great Volley in the European Cup Final

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I came up with these confederation rankings by averaging the Dec 09 FIFA rank of the top 10 nations in each confederation. The high nation is the 1st ranked team in each confederation and the low team is the 10th ranked nation.

7.0 - EuropeHigh: Spain (1)Low: Greece (13)

32.4 - South AmericaHigh: Brazil (2)Low: Peru (68)

33.0 - AfricaHigh: Cameroon (11)Low: Tunisia (53)

56.9 - CONCACAFHigh: USA (14)Low: Haiti (90)

63.0 - AsiaHigh: Australia (21)Low: Korea DPR (86)

163.9 - OceaniaHigh: New Zealand (82)Low: American Samoa and Papua New Guinea (203)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Last week I posted the All-time Youngest Premiership goal scorers, so I thought I'd give the old guys a post this week. These are the players who at the time of their first goal scored in a season, were at least 36 years old.

Teddy Sheringham became the all-time oldest EPL goal scorer when he hit the net in a 2-1 defeat to Portsmouth at the age of 40 years and 266 days.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The own goals have been flying in the net in the past month. These videos are the pick of the bunch, starting off with one of the most ridiculous goalkeeping errors I've ever seen and ending with 3 'quality' own goals in the same game.

I'm still looking for a decent source for African and Asian attendance figures. If anybody knows of a good/reliable source for that info please let me know. I would imagine places like Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, etc. might make the list, but I haven't been able to find attendance info for those leagues.

Friday, December 11, 2009

These maps show the birthplaces of all the players on the Senior Squad of Everton FC. Click the placemark icons for the player names and their birthplaces. For more navigation options click the view Everton Player Birthplace in a larger map links.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

In honor of the fact that I got my Subaru Outback stuck in my driveway three times this morning (and another couple of feet of snow should be here by tomorrow), I thought I'd post some video of some snowy games from the last couple of years.

I bet the Brazilians that play for Shakhtar Donetsk really enjoyed that game....(and they say Brazilians don't like to play in England because of the weather)

Friday, December 4, 2009

Here are all of the Groups from the 2010 World Cup with November FIFA rankings and group average rankings. The toughest group by average rankings is Group H (Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland) and the easiest group is Group F (Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, New Zealand).

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I must apologize for the sporadic posts lately. While I make a strong attempt to post every weekday, due to a number of unforseen circumstances, a general lack of time, and the holidays in recent weeks, I have been missing quite a few days. Please bear with me while things get back to normal and I have the time to update daily again. Thanks for your patience and for reading The Best Eleven.